What if hockey had the same eligibility rules as soccer?
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JackSlater
Registered User
- Apr 27, 2010
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International eligibility in hockey should move further away from soccer's example, not closer to it. There is no good reason to create a facade of growth in countries by letting more players represent a country they don't actually come from.
You misread the rules. Playing for 4 years in a country is only a thing if you change the national team. To compare it to your soccer example, an african player born and raised in Europe but a citizen of the respective african country would be eligible to play for that country.
FIFA has a similar rule if you move to a country after 18 you have to play five years there.
Any Player who ... [assumes] a new nationality and who has not played international football [in a match ... in an official competition of any category or any type of football for one Association] shall be eligible to play for the new representative team only if he fulfills one of the following conditions:
(a) He was born on the territory of the relevant Association;
(b) His biological mother or biological father was born on the territory of the relevant Association;
(c) His grandmother or grandfather was born on the territory of the relevant Association;
(d) He has lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 on the territory of the relevant Association.
Any Player who ... [assumes] a new nationality and who has not played international football [in a match ... in an official competition of any category or any type of football for one Association] shall be eligible to play for the new representative team only if he fulfills one of the following conditions:
(a) He was born on the territory of the relevant Association;
(b) His biological mother or biological father was born on the territory of the relevant Association;
(c) His grandmother or grandfather was born on the territory of the relevant Association;
(d) He has lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 on the territory of the relevant Association.
In bandy there is a somalian national team consisting of Swedish Somalis. In hockey there are stricter rules for a federation. In soccer I haven't heard complaints about their system. In hockey the rules do make it possible for Belarus to buy Canadians. In track and field the rules are too loose to me. You can buy athletes. In handball Qatar bought a whole team and won gold. In basketball there is kind of a strange rule to me that you can have one player on a team that has changed nationality.
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I like FIFA rules much better. It takes longer to be naturalized but heritage is accounted for much more. I'm also a strident Cote D'Ivoire football supporter.
At the very very least I would copy provision A of eligibility by birth. It makes no sense to say that a person isn't American if he was born in America and moved when he was 11 and played hockey in another country.
At the very very least I would copy provision A of eligibility by birth. It makes no sense to say that a person isn't American if he was born in America and moved when he was 11 and played hockey in another country.
Uncle Rotter
Registered User
It was either the USA or Belarus. He was raised in Russia mainly but I don't think he was a citizen.
